"Philip Gossett is a superb scholar, but he is also a true man of the theater." - G. W. Bowersock, New Republic "This enthralling and important book offers vital reading for anyone with a serious interest in opera.... Written with unfailing clarity and waspish wit, it charts the musical problems, both theoretical and practical, presented by the autograph manuscripts, printed scores, and performances of this great corpus." - Rupert Christiansen, Spectator "The depth and scope of Gossett's book... makes it one that will be of immense value to anyone approaching the subject of opera in the so-called age of belcanto." - Patrick O'Connor, Literary Review "To my knowledge, there is no other book like it. No one else has treated an important genre of half a century in its social and political setting, its stylistic development, together with a detailed history of its dissemination and performance over a century and a half.... All of this is accomplished by a prose style sensible, often original, provocative, learned, technical but lucid, and always entertaining.... Philip Gossett shows a tolerance and a largeness of spirit rare in those scholars who have so much passion." - Charles Rosen, New York Review of Books"